After seeing the footage, we then had the chance to sit down with Robert Downey Jr. himself and producer Kevin Feige and co-writer/director Shane Black. Downey is of course re-teaming with Black on Iron Man 3, having previously worked with him on Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang.

When it came to taking on Iron Man 3, Black admitted, “It was something daunting, but at the same time there was something very challenging about doing a third one. I’m always into the idea of sequels because of the question, 'What stories are there left to tell?' and how do you take something and make it seem like it was meant to be there all along… I mean, if the first one bombed, there wouldn’t be [sequels]. The notion of summing up the genre, trying to incorporate as much Iron Man into one movie, stuff it as full as we possibly could, was very appealing. It also gave me an opportunity to work with Marvel in a situation with a greenlit movie that was going -- because I’m not getting any younger, and I wanted to make a movie, not develop a movie. [Downey] did me a solid there, and I’m happy to have experienced this.”

Feige stressed that Iron Man 3 had a unique tone and that it was all thanks to Black. “This is Marvel Studios’ first part three. We’ve had other Marvel characters that have had part threes that I was around for and may or may not be as good as the part twos or other ones. Frankly, I didn’t want to fall into those traps. When we were going through those other ones -- and I was a part of them -- you don’t necessarily see that you’re falling into those traps, but I want to learn from everything that’s come before us. One of those is, if you look at the most recent, best part three, it would be Toy Story 3. That’s tonally different from the other two. It goes to places you don’t necessarily expect. We were well underway on our part three by the time we saw that movie, but it is to be admired, because it goes to places you wouldn’t necessarily expect. Frankly, you could have only gotten to a place like that in part three. That’s the advantage of a franchise that has more than two parts. You know the characters so well that you feel for them. We’re betting that you’re willing to go on a different and much more off-the-beaten-path journey with him than you have been before.”

There was some criticism that Iron Man 2 had to function too much as set up for The Avengers and Downey noted, “If it was frustrating at all then, it seems kind of liberating now because of the way The Avengers turned out and all that. My big question was, ‘Okay, so we didn’t jump the shark, even though the sky opened up a wormhole in Manhattan?’ They go, ‘Apparently not!’ The rest of the time, everybody kept telling me, “There is nothing you need to set up. This is freedom.” So sometimes you have these restrictions, and you kind of rail against them, but I like that stuff sometimes. I think that limitations, restrictions and challenges actually create a whole new set of neuro-pathways that are, I think, creatively stimulating. Then this time, they’re just kind of like, ‘Nope, why don’t you just get back to old nuts-and-bolts Tony stuff?’ And I was like, ‘Great! But, like... which nuts?’”

When it came to following up The Avengers, Feige said, “In a way, The Avengers liberated us in the development process, because we knew we couldn’t go bigger than Avengers. We didn’t want to go bigger than Avengers. What are you going to do? Crack the Earth in two, and Iron Man’s gonna have to put it together? No, that’s not what it’s about. We were much more inspired by the first half of the first Iron Man film. We said, ‘Let’s put him, metaphorically, back in a cave with a box of scraps and see how he uses his brain to get out of it.’ And that’s very much in Shane’s wheelhouse, taking cinematic tropes and conceits, and spinning them in an unexpected way. He’s done that in this film, not just in Tony’s story but even in the armor - you saw the way he could just toss the armor on another person. And it’s in the books, how individual pieces can come out to him. But with that sort of new conceit of the armor, Shane constructed three unbelievably cool action sequences out of it. That gave us the opportunity to check that box of big, unique action, while at the same time it still being a Tony Stark character story.”

The Mandarin was considered as the villain in the previous two Iron Man films, but Feige remarked, “It wasn’t until Shane that there was the idea that sort of cracked, that allowed him to be an entity that is recognizable right off the bat and is frightening and fearful in a very ripped-from-the-headlines Osama bin Laden kind of way. At the same time, he spun it in a new way -- and the example that Shane always uses -- that the cinephiles among you will know, is Marlon Brando’s character in Apocalypse Now. Colonel Kurtz was a guy who’s gone off the reservation, who’s incorporating all these different symbols and iconography into his world view.”

Explained Black, “Yeah, [Mandarin] has an intelligence background. His nationality is not even clear because he’s shrouded in secrecy, but at some point this field officer went nuts and became a student of warfare and ancient Chinese symbology and drew from South American insurgency tactics and has created around himself this little world of warfare. The only unifying principal of which seems to be a hatred of the United States. So he represents every terrorist, in a way. But specifically, he’s crafted himself in the manner of the Mandarin, of a warlord. I think that’s great, because you get to do the comic book, but you don’t have to deal with the specifics of Fu Manchu stereotyping. We’re not saying he’s Chinese, we’re saying that he in fact draws a cloak around him of Chinese symbols and dragons because it represents his obsession with Sun Tzu and various ancient arts of warfare that he has studied. So that’s what we like about it.”

When it came to Pepper, Downey said he agreed with Favreau making the first film, who felt that relationship was the heart of the story. Said Downey, “I think, ‘Okay, what do we want Gwyneth to be able to do this time? And how do we have it to where she’s not just going, ‘Tony!’ and in Act III I’m going, ‘Where’s Pepper!?'"

"I think what’s funny is there’s never been a superhero in one of these genre films where the guy is in a committed relationship," Downey continued. "It’s like, 'Oh, no. Don’t do that!' So we thought the strength in that is I think it sends a better message than, 'Don’t you want to be like this guy who dates Kim Basinger one year and Nicole Kidman the next?' Yes you do, but there’s no stability there. I think the whole thing is that it’s such a different time generationally. You definitely don’t want to smoke in movies anymore, no matter how cool it looks. But also, the way you interact with characters and the level of violence you have in a PG-13 movie, now you wonder like, 'My God, if we do that, is someone really gonna do that and we’re gonna have to reshoot it?' To me, it’s a genre that I don’t get bored of because it immediately takes the stink off of, 'We’re going to do an important movie, a serious movie.' But I think what’s important is that there has to be conflict in the relationship, and there has to be resolution that isn’t the same."

Discussing Tony and Pepper, Black said, “They’re on parallel tracks in the movie. You saw him, he’s off by himself and he’s not with her, but we do track her. They’re both forging ahead and doing things, so we get to see her be a little bit more proactive in this. She’ll play an important part by the end of the movie and the resolution of the story. So it’s just giving her something to do besides reacting to him, and I think that’s easy.”

Downey talked about collaborating with Black and Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce, saying, “By the time all was said and done, a million things had changed, but the essential storyline and arc and what it was about and him kind of on the road and this kid and Pepper’s got her own thing. There were a couple times in Iron Man 3 where our lifeline was we’d call Jon Favreau. 'What do we do?' He’d be like, 'Stick with this. Stick with the love story,' or whatever. Then he’d say, 'Wait, didn’t we used to do this same thing with Shane?' Because we reached out to Shane a bunch, particularly in the first Iron Man, the scene where Tony comes back from captivity and readdresses his public and the press. Shane said it should all be about what his dad would think, and that’s why blah, blah, blah. So there was that. Then I think we reached out to J.J. Abrams at one point when we were really confused in Act III, and he helped us, too. It’s just interesting. Usually you think, in the legacy of filmmakers that come and go, there’s something so evocative about how strange it is that this particular strain of the Marvel universe was so successful, so what are the reasons for that and how do we keep that vital and just have fun?”

Asked to sum up what would make Iron Man 3 the standout movie of the summer, Feige said, “I think it’s about Shane Black, whether you know who Shane Black is or not. They’ll know after this movie. A character as big as Iron Man is -- particularly coming off Avengers a year later -- going on this kind of journey and this kind of fresh take I think is going to be something to behold.”

Said Black, “The love of adventure is what hopefully will do it. We’ve tried not be cynical in this. One of the things Marvel does well is that they didn’t come in with a template based on The Avengers saying, 'Look, with the success we’ve had, please do this again.' They’ve allowed it to have its own breathing space and its own definitive personality. I used to go to the movies and wait two or three hours to see Raiders or something. And you always got into the theater and thought, 'That was worth the wait, and we had a great time.' And I haven’t felt that way for a long time. I’m not saying we’re Raiders of the Lost Ark, but we made every attempt to justify your wait in line. You’ve come to see a summer movie, you’re excited because you want the adventure and the love it. Well, we’re going to try and give you an adventure that’s worth standing in line for. Whether we succeed or not, I don’t know. But every attempt’s been made.”